Various SRAM questions.....

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:06:51 -0500, DougC <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Is there any way to put a friction shifter on these derailers?

All or almost all derailleurs can be friction shifted. Those can for
sure.

--
JT
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"John Forrest Tomlinson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:06:51 -0500, DougC <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Is there any way to put a friction shifter on these derailers?

All or almost all derailleurs can be friction shifted. Those can for
sure.

Even an ESP (1:1) mech? They need rather more cable pull than normal, so
wouldn't a conventional friction shifter run out of travel?

To the OP - if you want friction shifting, I reckon you'll need to go to a
non-ESP rear mech (eg shimano deore), and something like the new
thumbshifters which are bar end levers on a mounting.

But... I wouldn't do that. Index shifting for the back works pretty well IME
(even with the 1-gear hysterisis I appear to have on my drop bar bike due to
terminally inadequate maintenance). If you hate grip-shifts (I don't), get a
trigger shifter of some kind - SRAM if you want to keep the existing rear
mech or prefer their shifter, or shimano + new rear mech.

(do you have the full-width shifters or the 'half pipe' ones? The ones I use
are 9.0 half-width ones, and they work very well)

cheers,
clive

Clive George said:

"John Forrest Tomlinson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:06:51 -0500, DougC <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

Is there any way to put a friction shifter on these derailers?

All or almost all derailleurs can be friction shifted. Those can for
sure.

Even an ESP (1:1) mech? They need rather more cable pull than normal, so
wouldn't a conventional friction shifter run out of travel?

Maybe, but there are ways to increase the cable pull -- for example,
putting some housing liner on the part of the cable that wraps around
the shifter.

--
JT
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Clive George said:

.........
But... I wouldn't do that. Index shifting for the back works pretty well
IME (even with the 1-gear hysterisis I appear to have on my drop bar
bike due to terminally inadequate maintenance). If you hate grip-shifts
(I don't), get a trigger shifter of some kind - SRAM if you want to keep
the existing rear mech or prefer their shifter, or shimano + new rear mech.

(do you have the full-width shifters or the 'half pipe' ones? The ones I
use are 9.0 half-width ones, and they work very well)

I don't know what you mean by "full" or "half", here is a picture of the
ones it has:

Quoted message said:

http://www.cactusbike.com/store/control/product?category_id=SHIFTERS&product_id=SRAM073

cost =$16 a pair, not very much. I'm not real surprised that $16
shifters don't work perfect--but I have no idea if any of the
more-expensive ones would do much better.

The exact problem is that the shifting doesn't line up on all the cogs.
If the cable is adjusted to run correct on the 7-8-9 cogs, then it
doesn't quite line up on the 1-2-3 (largest) cogs, it skips and is
noisy. The cable had stretched to the point that it wouldn't even reach
the largest cog and I had the barrel adjuster on the grip turned out
pretty far, so I screwed it back in and re-tensioned the cable and
all..... but it still won't shift right on all the cogs.

It might need a bit of lubing, or maybe that wouldn't matter.

I'd bet the $200 grip shifters work great, maybe even the $100 ones work
great but for that much I could put a Shimano setup on it that would
have a friction option.

Can you change the cables that come with the SRAM trigger shifters? The
bicycle is longer than usual, a normal-length cable wouldn't reach.
~

"DougC" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Clive George said:

.........
But... I wouldn't do that. Index shifting for the back works pretty well
IME (even with the 1-gear hysterisis I appear to have on my drop bar bike
due to terminally inadequate maintenance). If you hate grip-shifts (I
don't), get a trigger shifter of some kind - SRAM if you want to keep the
existing rear mech or prefer their shifter, or shimano + new rear mech.

(do you have the full-width shifters or the 'half pipe' ones? The ones I
use are 9.0 half-width ones, and they work very well)

I don't know what you mean by "full" or "half", here is a picture of the
ones it has:

Quoted message said:

http://www.cactusbike.com/store/control/product?category_id=SHIFTERS&product_id=SRAM073

See the link you've just given - they're the "half pipe" ones.

Quoted message said:

The exact problem is that the shifting doesn't line up on all the cogs. If
the cable is adjusted to run correct on the 7-8-9 cogs, then it doesn't
quite line up on the 1-2-3 (largest) cogs, it skips and is noisy. The cable
had stretched to the point that it wouldn't even reach the largest cog and
I had the barrel adjuster on the grip turned out pretty far, so I screwed
it back in and re-tensioned the cable and all..... but it still won't shift
right on all the cogs.

It might need a bit of lubing, or maybe that wouldn't matter.

Is the rear mech knackered? Shifting was duff on ours, because the
parallelogram bit was wonky/loose.

Quoted message said:

I'd bet the $200 grip shifters work great, maybe even the $100 ones work
great but for that much I could put a Shimano setup on it that would have a
friction option.

Remember normal shimano doesn't have a friction option either - only the bar
end and downtube levers (fitted using the non-shimano mounts).

Quoted message said:

Can you change the cables that come with the SRAM trigger shifters? The
bicycle is longer than usual, a normal-length cable wouldn't reach.

Is it a longer bike than ours? The two bikes with gripshift are MTB tandems
:-)

Or to answer your question more accurately, you can change the cables on any
shifter. This is a good thing, since they do fail.

cheers,
clive

DougC said:

I don't know what you mean by "full" or "half", here is a picture of the
ones it has:

Quoted message said:

http://www.cactusbike.com/store/control/product?category_id=SHIFTERS&product_id=SRAM073

cost =$16 a pair, not very much. I'm not real surprised that $16
shifters don't work perfect--but I have no idea if any of the
more-expensive ones would do much better.

The exact problem is that the shifting doesn't line up on all the cogs.
If the cable is adjusted to run correct on the 7-8-9 cogs, then it
doesn't quite line up on the 1-2-3 (largest) cogs, it skips and is
noisy. The cable had stretched to the point that it wouldn't even reach
the largest cog and I had the barrel adjuster on the grip turned out
pretty far, so I screwed it back in and re-tensioned the cable and
all..... but it still won't shift right on all the cogs.

Sounds like something is wrong with your shifter, cable, or both. Is
there play in the shifter or does it snap back when you turn it not
quite enough to shift?

Switching to shifters with a shorter barrel *may* solve the accidental
shifting problem you mentioned. Switching to trigger shifters *will*.
A set of SRAM ESP trigger shifters plus new cable and housing is
probably the cheapest solution to your problems. If normal cables are
not long enough for your bike, you can cut a tandem cable short.

As long as all the parts are in good repair, indexed shifting works so
well these days that I don't see any reason to switch to friction. The
same thing goes for front indexed shifting on mountain bike drivetrains,
for that matter. If you really want to switch though, you may need to
get a non-ESP derailer to make it work so be prepared for that. Any old
thumb shifter should pull enough cable for a Shimano 9 speed rear, or if
you don't mind spending money you could mount a pair of bar-end shifters
on Paul Thumbies and have the choice between indexed and friction
shifting:

<http://www.paulcomp.com/thumbmtn.html>

Whatever you choose, I would definitely replace the cable and housing.

DougC wrote:

Well nuts, nevermind.
I pulled off the red caps and oiled a bit under them and on the adjuster
threads in the calipers. Mucho better now.
~